“In the course of the journey through time and space that is presented to us, we ask ourselves at every moment if the conflicts within which we live every day are ultimately only illusions; and whether the truth about people and cultures might actually lie here – in the dialogue between the instruments, voices, chords, cadences, gestures, improvisations and breaths.”Amin Maalouf, French writer of Lebanese origin, excerpt taken from the liner notes of the Mare Nostrum CD